The Roosevelts trashed the White House!! - nicotine stains, worn carpets, rats, ...

[Captain Hilts]

bad food, worn flooring - you name it!!!!

From the NYT review of the book "Eleanor and Harry,"

Mrs. Roosevelt moved out of the White House on the morning of April 23. When she gave Bess and Margaret Truman a private tour, they were startled to find it in poor structural condition. The floors and ceilings sagged, plaster was cracking everywhere, carpets were threadbare and dusty, and some of the drapes were rotting. Congress had approved $50,000 in expenditures for housekeeping and maintenance. But Mrs. Roosevelt may have thought it wasteful to spend taxpayer funds during the war for her family's comfort. For nearly half of his presidency, Truman would live in Blair House, the guest house of the president, which is on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House, while the executive mansion was being renovated.

FDR: Well, we acted like we lived there.
ER: It seemed selfish to spend money on the White House during the war. Besides, it was already a fire trap.

[WI_DEM]

1. Who's Harry? Harry Hopkins or Harry Truman?

Anyway, Truman had to rennovate the WH otherwise it would have collapsed.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Truman. Yes, it was about to collapse. Eleanor's last words to Bess Truman were....

"uh, er, we've got a rat problem."

If she wanted to have a private conversation in the White House, she would go into the bathroom, turn on the spigots, and speak French. She did this with her daughter and other folks. The walls were so thin. You could hear the dogs running around on the third floor.

[onehandle]

3. Yep. And now it's a concrete fortress.

It only resembles the original structure.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Remember that article in the NYT Patty Davis wrote to Chelsea Clinton?

She said it was like living in a bank vault. VERY quiet.

[onehandle]

7. During the Truman reconstruction, they found damage left by the British burning of 1814.

Obviously FDR's fault.

[hlthe2b]

4. Seems to me the Roosevelts failed to maintain the White House

Rather than "trashed" it. They were there for the majority of three terms--that's a long time for an old building not to have undergone routine maintenance and preservation.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Exactly. The public rooms were completely renovated in 1939 for the visit of King George...

and Queen Elizabeth.

FDR had a world of sinus problems, so he H-A-T-E-D the smell of paint and what it did to his sinuses, so it was difficult to paint the upstairs because he'd need to be gone for two weeks. So, the walls of rooms he used were stained with nicotine.